Building Lives: Brick by Brick!

Kathmandu, June 25, 2016- Animal Nepal’s 2015-2016_Equine Outreach Programme has finally come to an end. This season we didn’t only treated the sick and injured working animals in the brick factories but also conducted 8 community education programmes where we reached 131 donkey handlers and 21 owners.

The results were obvious. With 40% less wound than previous season, 30% less hoof problems and more than 50% decrease in other common health issues, 2015-2016 has undoubtedly become one of the best project year of all time. This was not only possible by educating the owners and handlers but also by motivating them to do their best. Want to know how??

An award ceremony was organised where we awarded the best three donkey handlers of the season. The judgement was made on the basis of welfare assessment conducted in the beginning, middle and end of the brick season. All the handlers did their best to take care of their animals this year, be it by providing good food and water for their animals, providing proper care, limiting the loads, less beating, providing more rest etc.. We were amazed by the results and it was clear that these donkey handlers deserved a very special treat, a day to remember! And hence, we called for the best donkey handler award ceremony where we invited 27 handlers. All the handlers were picked from their respective brick factories by a bus which brought them to Tripura restaurant where waited their yummy lunch and snacks, movies, prizes and much more.

Director Uttam Kaphle, welcomed all the handlers with his beautiful speech in broken hindi. Dr.Atish Yadav gave them a quick summary of our project year 2015-2016 and what we achieved. And then the boring session ended. The best three names were called out. Pappu Khan and Ali Hussain went to become 3rd and 2nd best donkey handlers respectively. Whereas the hero of the programme was Kirpa Raidas winning the tile of THE Best Donkey Handler of the season. The winners were given prizes that included very useful things like, cloths, shoes, bags, jackets and cash prizes. Other donkey handlers were also given complimentary prizes which contained daily useful things like soap, toothpaste, hand wash etc.

President Pramada Shah, thanked all the handlers for their amazing performance this year and assured the child handlers to carry out meetings with their owners and parents at Nepalgunj regarding their education and improved living standards. Other important guests were our vice president Shristi Singh Shrestha and our honorary Board member and legal advisor Shoba Tiwari.

The handlers were shown interesting movies like Tahaan and The jungle book. Yummy vegetarian lunch was served to them. Fun games were played and photos were taken. The handlers promised to come back next year and perform even better.

Animal Nepal has been rewarding the best handlers and owners since the starting of our Programme. But with the kind support of The Donkey Sanctuary UK, this year were able to reward them in more better and satisfying ways. Recently, Best donkey owners were awarded at our Godawari Donkey Sanctuary where Gonu Kasagar from Bajra brick factory won the first prize, Samim Kasagar from Kantipur BF won the 2nd prize and Firoz Kasagar from Bajra Barahi won the 3rd prize for setting an example of best owners.

Animal Nepal will soon be heading to Nepalgunj where we aim to organise series of trainings and workshops like wound management training, better harness development, behavior communication with their donkeys, cause of lameness, symptoms of different disease and way of prevention and understand value of donkeys through our resource center.

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Animal Nepal works in Lalitpur and the southern part of Kathmandu District.